Average house price tops $1 million in Wellington

Property values in Wellington increased by 3.1 per cent in May, taking the average house price to just over $1 million. Photo / Mark Mitchell

By RNZ

Average house values in the Wellington region have topped $1 million, but the latest CoreLogic House Price Index shows some slowdown in the growth of those values.

Nationally, values increased 2.2 per cent in May, a slight reduction on April's 3.1 per cent growth rate.

CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said that reflected the impact of both the Reserve Bank's tightening of loan-to-value ratios and the Government's changes to the interest deductibility rules for residential investment properties.

"While these changes have caused some investors to sit back and take stock of their portfolio, it appears this pull-back in demand has been mostly made up for by other investors, likely with less debt, and owner-occupiers who had previously missed out while competing in a very heated market," he said.

Property values in Tauranga increased by 5.1 per cent in May. In Wellington the figure was 3.1 per cent and in Hamilton it was 3.7 per cent.

In those three centres, the quarterly increases were still strong, around the 10 per cent mark.

The average property value in Wellington is now just over $1m, while in Tauranga it's close to $970,000.

CoreLogic said growth in values in Auckland was slowing, at 1.4 per cent monthly and 5.5 per cent quarterly.

That put the average house value for the region over $1.25m.

- RNZ